State of the Flooz, August 1st, 2005.
Captain’s log, supplemental. It’s been seven nanohours since my last entry. The mind is confused, actually somewhat clear just buzzing with knowledge. So much to do, so much to read, absorb and learn.
Last night I discussed the value and place that god/religion has in my life right now. I saw Father Dave in person and enjoyed a wonderful dinner with him and my folks. Before we ventured off into the topics of all things Jesus, I took them on a spree of activity regarding the net. Things like tagging, social networks, the future of whats soon to be, the don’t be evil aspects of google and more. My mother loves google, its the one beacon of goodness she claims the net has, I explained my theories on the open nature of the web that is currently unfolding, right here, right now, this old beta. That’s what its all about. Google wins favor, gains market share and takes on everyone with open arms. It was a good conversation, by the time i got to GPS air posting, I had lost them and decided to reel back a bit. Then we dabbled in religion, mainly in the topic of the new small but ever increasing class of new younger summinarians(?), the future priests of tomorrow, and how they can reach people who are wired from birth. There’s minor concerns that while many of the youth today are online and that would mean summinarns(which i cant spell), would have to go online to find these people and connect, the concern is how much time online. Go where they people are sure, i can see that, but also keep two feet in reality. I think at times, the net, its presence is overwhelming, all the more reason we need a hook, a guide outside of the net to keep us grounded.
The days of classic mafia priest are fading. I say mafia priest cause its like in every good mafia movie, any good movie that you can recall, theres always a priest somewhere in there, the crimminal element loves the connection to the almighty, and especially in movies. Why is it that good gangsters have god at their side, the conscience of doing wrong and having the light right there to guide you to do better yet you’ll always do wrong. I dunno, i think its interesting so many takes on mafia, gangsters etc always seem to have a priest in there. But the elder wise old priest is leaving us, Father Dave, a wonderful and wise paulist is hanging on by a thread. He’s on his second hip operation and I hate to see this wise man, this endless sarcastic and hilarious one liner man leave us. At the newman center on the OSU campus, he is loved dearly by the students. He’s a straight shooter, no BS, and his humor is endless, he’s always reminding me the times of mass and often asks me if my apartment is ready to be blessed yet.
My relationship with the almighty and I wonder if he gets tired of being called that is complicated. In the past 12 months i’ve strayed far away from the weekly ritual. When i’m in mass and I recite the holy creed.. i don’t know why. Force of habbit i suppose, i just know it, i really know it by heart, yet its meaning to me, now, is vague. I wish i had a new vision of religion, something that was more applicable to me, and where i am, here in 2005. Of course Father Dave, and my folks realize this, they talk about it often. In the end, the mass, the ritual while important is not as important as the message as whole. The message and the practice of the message is what the youth of today can do, can see the end result, you can feel it when you do the right thing, its rewarding, can you see that it could be, just by chance that a higher power is at work? Have you ever had any incling that its possible? If theres any doubt then yes you can reclaim yer faith. I’m still in the process of doing so.
Lately i’ve been on a proactive kick. Proactive in taking charge of my life, and maybe its cause of the influx of ideas i’ve had lately. Books to that to ya. You get this massive influx of ideas and the wheels begin to turn and before ya know it yer staring at the wall saying to yerself..”ya i can do this..” and then you start making decisions and the ball moves forward. Its not like i avoid decisions before, I just choose to make new ones. And in fact there were some decisions i chose to ignore or not face simply cause i didnt understand them, i didnt know what to do, the fork in the road was bothersome to me, I didnt want to go left or right cause they had no meaning and they felt so permament, and they arent, they are simply choices, and later I can make new ones.
Say Dan, what kind of choices? Mainly financial ones. And those have been haunting me for years really, which is why I feel soooo good about finally confronting them. Finally educating myself about the numbers and I still have a long ways to go really, and deciding that ya, I need to address all this crap, has arrived. In doing so its caused me to re-evaluate everything else I do with my time.
Work is work… its a roller coaster, it goes up and goes down. Sometimes I really debate it in my head, other times i need reminders of how good it is. For example not having to deal with getting my own medical insurance is an added perk to my current job. I have friends about to take the leap and deal with cobra and thats not fun, I wish them well and want them to get away from cobra. I remember being unemployeed and seeing cobra as this massive hex on my life. It was so damn expensive. And currently i dont have to worry about that, that is good. Apperciate that.
At work people describe me as the video ethnographer, true by trade i am a video editor, but last week in a few brainstorming sessions on projects its clear i’m much more than that. The term “researcher” is too vague for me. I’m really not a researcher deep down. Deep down i’m a marketing person. Ya know what I can do for hours on end, endless, is research trends in marketing, advertising and so on. I love making things up, using my creativity to win clients over, to create better ways of showing the data. I love researching the edge, knowing where the next idea is coming from, seeing the patterns at work forming the next leap. I really like doing that. Will that cater to my current, job? Some aspects will, its stragety to say basically that the market will be thinking about this kind of research in 24months, so heres a chance right now to have a say about it. Be seen, have that voice. I’m still figuring out how i fit within the greater cookie called Lextant here. When they say “dan, video ethnographer..” i think that is like 5% of me. If they said “dan, trailer man” theres another 5%, or if they’d say “dan, marketing guy,” yet another 5%, comedian 5%, trendspotter more like 10%, advertising nut 10% more, emerging tech hound who spends far too much time trying to see the future thru the web more like 20%, naming guy 10%… designer 3%, manager 10%, idea o matic that really needs to start cashin in on his gut instict more 100%.
So where’s that put us? Where is the state of the flooz? The flooz is busy. I’ve entangled my life now with several side projects, from new marketing devices to brand new potential projects, all diving in on what i’ve been jazzed about for several years now. Thats good and bad. Good in that i’m meeting more like minds and getting those ideas down and ACTing on them, bad in that i’m more of scatter brain than ever probably. Acting as my own task master is helping. And the ideas keep coming.
I cant go from zero to 3000 miles per hour, i’ll stall, as much as I wanna try, I know i’ll stall. I’ve already gotten up to 60mph in just a few passing days. And it feels GREAT.
The importance of staying fresh + frisky. You got to do it. You need balance, you need justice in your own essence. What the hell does that mean? Good question, I come with these strange one liners often. Sometimes I think they’d be great to see on billboards if they just make one person stop and go “wah?” then it worked. Like the flickr image i saw awhile back… “distance creates desire” so true really, in fact check out this photostream on flickr: desire. I love the many people and what they deem is “desire”, some interesting photo reflections of that.
So what is essential to keeping the flooz man fresh and frisky? Well its a formula. Fresh equals newness, so content, web, magazine, real existance, love, yes love, its all content. The depth of content is important. I’m a magazine hound. I crave the edge, the newness of whats authenticily in, even if I never consider buying it, or using it, i still need to see it. I need to see how its being pushed, how are these concepts and ideas being pressed out in the global marketplace. Whats the latest campaign to push this concept or that brand or this person,… its all massivily important, its the pulse. You can get it from tv, the net, or just walking outside and seeing what people are doing. Frisky comes from involving yerself into the content, read, go work out, go do what you wouldnt normally do.
On saturday I considered for a moment while watching a woman mowing her lawn, to simply go up to her and take over the mowing. “I’ll finish, go take a rest.” What would that of done? Taking a moment and just offer to help. Even if you get shut down, and that happens, the act of just doing that, the minute you take the leap and try to help the feeling is out, yer brain is excitied, you feel good, that is a high that no money can buy, its a high not in any self help book. Making more choices in life and getting closer to doing more actions like selfless giving is a good thing. It helps create perspective and that fuels friskyness.
Course it all comes in stages. In the past I used the web and sites like pixelsurgeon, and surfstation.lu or newstoday to stay fresh artisticily, now i’m on a self help kick, i’m consuming books at an alarming rate. I’ve begun to surround myself with like minded folks and the ideas are pouring out, i’ve asked certain friends to KICK me in the ass often to keep me in check. The personal motivator 6000, i need that assistant to remind me to keep going. I’ve found a few of them, they work pretty well.
Ok end ramble. I’ve had my talks and the state of the flooz is good. There is great promise in the land. Take a moment out of yer day to thank those that you needed to thank and then thank someone you dont know. Thank them just cause odds are they arent all that different than you. Simply say “thank you”. Thanks everyone.
